Steven Schumacher drops brutally honest Bolton Wanderers claim - It's not good news | OneFootball

Wanderers have been faced with a major injury crisis over the last couple of weeks.

Steven Schumacher has said that Bolton Wanderers are dealing with the worst injury crisis he has experienced as a manager, with a dozen players currently unavailable for this weekend's match versus Peterborough United.

Bolton's list of casualties was lengthy enough before the double-header they faced over the Easter weekend, which yielded two losses and essentially, but not mathematically, ended their chances of finishing in the play-off spots.

Schumacher had to worry about nine injuries before his side eventually fell to the 2-0 and 4-2 defeats against Wycombe Wanderers and Lincoln City, respectively. That number has since increased by a third, leaving the former Plymouth Argyle boss seriously short of options.

Steven Schumacher reveals Bolton Wanderers' extended injury list

He admitted that this period is the lowest that he has experienced, in terms of fitness in his squads, since becoming a manager. Wanderers will have to ask more youth team players to make up the numbers against the Posh.

"I think this is one of the worst injury crises I've seen as a coach," Schumacher stated, via the Bolton News. I think going into Saturday's game we could potentially have 12 players unavailable, so that's a new record I think for me."

Kion Etete, Ricardo Santos and Sonny Sharples-Ahmed are the three new names that have been added to the club doctor's to-see list. The groin problem which has been affecting Santos, who is set to become a free agent this summer, for some weeks now may mean he might have already played his final game for Bolton.

"The only positive I have is that Szabi (Schön) is back out there on the grass," a slightly relieved Schumacher added. "There are 12 really good players there that are potentially going to be unavailable, 10 of them have played huge parts in what we've done this season.

"So, when you lose 10 good players like that, it's difficult for any side to maintain momentum and keep getting results, so it's been a blow. Performances haven't been all that bad.

"The performance at Lincoln on Monday, we conceded poor, poor goals. We did well to score two ourselves and get back into the game but then two errors in the second half killed it for us. But again, I don’t want to get carried away with it.

"We're all disappointed, bitterly disappointed, not to be in the play-off mix, but there are factors behind that and we'll try and put that right next year."

Steven Schumacher must be fed up with this season

Schumacher said after the Lincoln loss that he couldn't wait to get started with the recruitment drive for next season; he might now reframe that statement to 'I can't wait for this season to be over.'

Luckily for him, there are only two weekends left before the summer break, but it really has been a frustrating campaign for him personally, as well as Bolton.

He was sacked almost out of nowhere by Stoke City in the first part of the season before eventually moving to the Toughsheet Community Stadium at the end of January. He had very little time to reshuffle the squad in the way that he would have liked, and has now overseen a major skid which has involved seven losses in Wanderers' last nine matches.

It's been a season to forget for the 40-year-old. He'll just be happy that he can put it behind him in just over a week's time.